Generally, slide fasteners are attached to openings of various products such as clothing or bags, and left and right element rows are engaged or disengaged by sliding a slider, which is disposed on the slide fastener, to open or close the opening. Also, there is known a slider for use in the slide fastener including a stop mechanism for retaining the slider at a stop position when the slider is stopped at any position on the element rows.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-176910A (Patent Document 1) discloses a slider 100 with a stop mechanism as described above. As illustrated in FIG. 13, the slider 100 disclosed in Patent Document includes three components, that is, a slider body 90, a pull tab 110, and a leaf spring member 80.
The pull tab 110 has a pull tab body 111 to be pinched by fingers at operation of the slider 100, and an axis 112 disposed at one end portion of the pull tab body 111 and having a cam-shaped cross section. For Patent Document 1, the axis 112 of the pull tab 110 is configured to be shifted downward with respect to the pull tab body 111 when the pull tab 110 lies down toward a rear mouth of the slider body 90.
The leaf spring member 80 disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a fallen shape, and has a middle plate portion 81, a drooping piece 82 extending from a front end portion of the middle plate portion 81, and a locking claw 83 extending downward from a rear end portion of the middle plate portion 81. Also, an upper-surface window portion 84 is opened in the middle plate portion 81, and an inclined tongue portion 85 extends forward and downward from an opened edge of a rear side of the upper-surface window portion 84. A first window portion 86 is opened in the tongue portion 85, and a second window portion 87 is opened from the middle plate portion 81 to the locking claw 83. A proximal end of the drooping piece 82 is provided with a projection (not illustrated) projecting in a width direction.
The slider body 90 disclosed in Patent Document 1 has an upper blade 91, a lower blade 92, and a connecting post 93 for connecting front end portions of the upper blade 91 and the lower blade 92. Left and right shoulder mouths are disposed at a front end portion of the slider body 90, with the connecting post 93 being interposed between the shoulder mouths, and a rear mouth is disposed at a rear end portion of the slider body 90. An element guide passage 95 communicating the left and the right shoulder mouths and the rear mouth is formed between the upper and lower blades 91 and 92.
The upper blade 91 has a first post portion 91a standing up from its front end portion, and a second post portion 91b standing up from a rear position with respect to the first post portion 91a. A portion at the rear side of the first post portion 91a is provided with an insertion hole 91c into which the tongue portion 85 of the leaf spring member 80 is inserted, and a portion at the rear side of the second post portion 9b is provided with a claw hole 91d into which the locking claw 83 of the leaf spring member 80 is inserted. Also, the front end portion of the first post portion 91a has a protrusion 91e disposed at a center portion in the width direction, and abutment portions (not illustrated) disposed at both left and right sides of the protrusion 91e and abutting against the tongue portion 85 of the leaf spring member 80. In this instance, a tip end surface of the abutment portion is disposed in a direction perpendicular to an upper surface of the upper blade 91.
A front-end groove 96 is disposed at the front end (front side of the guide post) of the slider body 90, and the drooping piece 82 of the leaf spring member 80 is inserted into the front-end groove. A locking portion (not illustrated) protrudes forward from an inner lower end portion of the front-end groove 96, and the projection of the drooping piece 82 is locked to the locking portion.
When the slider 100 including the components as described above is assembled, the axis 112 of the pull tab 110 is set on the upper surface of the upper blade 91, and then the tongue portion 85 and the locking claw 83 of the leaf spring member 80 are respectively inserted into the insertion hole 91c and the claw hole 91d of the upper blade 91. Then, while the tongue portion 85 of the leaf spring member 80 is pressed against the abutment portion of the first post portion 91a which is disposed at the upper blade 91, the drooping piece 82 of the leaf spring member 80 is inserted into the front-end groove 96 of the slider body 90. In addition, as the leaf spring member 80 is resiliently deformed and the drooping piece 82 is pushed down, the projection of the drooping piece 82 is engaged with the locking portion of the slider body 90. Accordingly, the leaf spring member 80 is fitted into the slider body 90 to assemble the slider 100, as illustrated in FIG. 13.
According to the slider 100 disclosed in Patent Document 1 which is assembled by the above process, if the pull tab 110 lies down toward the rear mouth (rear side), the locking claw 83 of the leaf spring member 80 moves in the element guide passage 95 of the slider body 90. For this reason, if the slider fastener includes such a slider 100, the locking claw 83 is inserted and locked between the fastener elements of the element row when the pull tab 110 lies down backward, so that the slider 100 can be retained at a stop position with respect to the element row.
If the pull tab 110 of the slider 100 stands up with respect to the upper surface of the upper blade 91, the middle plate portion 81 of the leaf spring member 80 is lifted up against the resilient force of the leaf spring member 80 by the axis 112 of the pull tab 110. Therefore, the bent portion can be resiliently deformed at the drooping piece 82 of the leaf spring member 80, and the locking claw 83 can be retracted from the element guide passage 95. For this reason, the slider 100 can be freely slid with respect to the element row.
If the pull tab 110 lies down toward the shoulder mouths (front side), since the axis 112 of the pull tab 110 is shifted with respect to the pull tab body 111, the middle plate portion 81 of the leaf spring member 80 is maintained in the lifted state by the axis 112 of the pull tab 110, so that the slider 100 can be freely slid.